Gorbachev Asks Latin Arms Ban : But Soviet Aid to Nicaragua Could Continue Under Terms of His Plan

HAVANA —  Proclaiming a “real possibility of guaranteeing peace in Central America,” Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev called Tuesday for an end to “military supplies to Latin America from any part of the world.”

But by conditioning his plea on U.S. behavior in Central America, he implicitly left open the possibility that Soviet arms aid to Nicaragua will continue despite a plea from Washington last week that he announce an end to such aid during his first visit to Cuba.

The Soviets supply more than $1 billion annually in arms and economic aid to the Sandinista government in Nicaragua. The United States supplies arms to El Salvador, Honduras and other countries in the region.

Earlier, at a brief ceremony at Havana’s Palace of Conventions, Gorbachev and Castro signed a peace and friendship treaty between their countries.

‘Political Means’

The treaty said the two countries would “contribute to the solution of regional conflicts and hotbeds of tension through negotiated political means.”

In a speech to Cuba’s rubber-stamp National Assembly that wound up his three-day visit here, Gorbachev praised the accord agreed to by five Central American nations for ending the conflict between Nicaragua and the Contras. But he said its success “will depend to a large extent” on the future behavior of the United States and Nicaragua’s Central American neighbors.

“We are worried about (the U.S.) decision to continue assisting the Contras,” he said, stressing that the conflict requires “a Latin American solution . . . without any foreign interference.”

The Bush Administration and congressional leaders agreed last month to continue non-military aid to the Contras, at the rate of about $4.5 million a month, until elections are held in Nicaragua next February.

Gorbachev curtly dismissed a statement by Vice President Dan Quayle that Central America is of paramount concern to Washington because it is the “back yard of the United States.”

“We have analyzed this with Fidel Castro, and we are fully convinced this problem can only be solved through political means,” Gorbachev said. “There now exists the real possibility of guaranteeing peace, and one of the basic conditions would be to put an end to military supplies to Latin America from any part of the world.”

His words, translated as he spoke by a Cuban interpreter, appeared to suggest an end to all Latin arms aid by the United States before the Soviets would follow suit in Nicaragua. Thus, while his remarks may have created a slight opening for discussion, they did not represent the breakthrough that President Bush and Secretary of State James A. Baker III apparently had hoped for when they called for evidence during the Cuba visit of what Gorbachev has called the Kremlin’s “new thinking” about foreign policy.

‘U.S. Always Interested’

In Washington, White House spokesman Roman Popakiuk said: “We are always interested in what Mr. Gorbachev has to say. However we will have to give his speech careful study before we offer any comments. We will be examining it with a view to whether or not it offers the ‘new thinking’ the Soviets keep referring to on various issues.”

However, the Soviet leader did restate principles that represent a departure from the traditional Marxist foreign policy of his predecessors.

“The Soviet Union does not seek for itself political, strategic or military advantage in the Western Hemisphere. . . ,” he said. “The Soviet Union has not and does not intend to have naval, air force or missile bases in Latin America, or deploy nuclear or other weapons of mass destruction there.”

Underscoring the remarks, he warned of “extremely grave consequences” if the United States and Pakistan intensify their support of rebels fighting the Soviet-backed government of Afghanistan.

But Gorbachev was generally positive in some of his other remarks about the United States. During a press conference after the speech, he spoke approvingly of U.S.-Soviet cooperation in a treaty to eliminate mid-range nuclear missiles and in talks to reduce conventional weapons in Europe and to eliminate chemical weapons.

“For the first time since World War II we have brought light to the solution of international problems that for decades have poisoned international life,” he said. Adding the hope for continued progress in improving relations with the West, he said “we must triple our collective efforts to avoid holocaust.”

Main Thrust of Speech

The main thrust of Gorbachev’s speech concerned Soviet relations with Cuba. Before the visit, many observers had described those relations as tense, as Castro continued to reject for Cuba the examples of Gorbachev’s glasnost (openness) and perestroika (restructuring) reforms. The Soviets are known to be impatient with the inefficient use of the more than $5 billion in economic aid they send annually to Cuba. Soviet experts have urged changes in Cuba’s rigid bureaucracy.

However, Gorbachev dismissed the speculation “that we would meet as enemies” as “pure invention.”

“Our friendship today is greater than ever,” he said. “Each country solves the problems of socialist transformation on the basis of its own political experience, its own development, its own traditions.”

In introducing the Soviet president with a speech of more than 50 minutes--almost as long as the main event--Castro also derided the speculation of a breach between the longtime allies. “We have no differences whatsoever with the Soviet Union,” he said, pointing out that the internal difficulties of the two countries have been very different.

“It would be absurd to purport that we should apply in a country of 10 million inhabitants the formulas of a country with 285 million inhabitants,” he said “. . . Anyone can see this is madness.”

Castro even conceded to the Soviets the right to use capitalist approaches to solving problems.

“If a socialist country wants to build capitalism, we must respect their right,” he said. “We have no right to interfere with that.”

It appeared from the remark that if there was a rivalry between the two men before their meeting, Gorbachev came out the winner.

The two also dismissed reports that Gorbachev would forgive Cuba’s $9-billion to $10 billion debt to the Soviet Union. Gorbachev acknowledged that the subject was discussed and said “we agreed to continue our analysis.” But Castro said he did not want the debt forgiven because it exists on such soft terms, with frequent rescheduling and postponements, that it is not a problem for Cuba.

In his speech and the joint press conference with Castro, Gorbachev called for a new “North, South, East and West” dialogue on debt problems, suggesting a new, permanent institution in the United Nations to analyze the problem and plan strategies to solve it.

“It is one of the most serious problems of civilization,” he said, adding that he did not believe it would be solved until such an organization takes a global view of it.